Her Billionaire, Her Wolf--The Novel(28)

In his ears Jackson could hear the lovely sound his belt buckle makes when it strikes warm flesh. Something far too delicious to avoid, really. Except that once he got started he might not be able to stop. Except that maybe Sara might not still be around by the time he finished.

“But don’t worry, honey. I know just the place to put you and, if I have to, why I’ll do the remembering for the both of us.

“You’ll see.

“This is going to be great.”



Sara heard every garbled word and screamed inside while her body refused to respond.

And the voice that shrieked endlessly behind her empty eyes did so with a single word, a single name, over and over and over.

Braze....





4





These Cunning Bones





Flair ran in the darkness. His nose was low to the ground and his prey was near. Not a thing meant for filling his empty stomach, but a quarry of another kind. The sort that would satisfy another desire altogether, but one not less in the urgent need it awakened within him.

Her scent was thick upon the ground and it was a simple matter to follow her. In heat, heavy and throbbing with her season upon her, she danced the mating dance of time immemorial, making him chase her, forcing him to show her how desirable she was.

He rounded a corner of the trail. An oak three paces wide forced him to turn in a bend and slip under a bush thick with golden fall leaves.

And, when he did, he came to a sudden stop.

She stood before him, her tail up. Her nose was in the air, proud and beautiful.

Flair advanced slowly, his tongue lolling from between his jaws, willing her to hold still. Desperate that the chase had come to an end. Wishing that exquisite denial would prolong this moment ever more.

Her scent filled his head with animal desire and as he approached she turned her regard to look deeply into his eyes.

There was no fear, no more reason to flee before him. Her eyes held only curiosity. They held him spellbound....



His cellphone rang shrilly, its sound keyed to the caller and the importance of the call.

It was not the kind of call he could ignore and with a groan he rolled over, reflexively groping in the darkness for the phone.

Cold, yellow light flickered through his fingers as he found it at last and he could not help but be reminded of the she-wolf and her warm yellow eyes. It had been a dream worth dreaming and the young man would have given much to go back to it.

Instead, he keyed the phone to unlock and heard a deep voice speak.

"Flair. I need the Twins. Do you know how to reach them?"

He cleared his throat then said, "Uhmmm...yes, I think so."

His head was still fuzzy with the scents and sounds of the forest behind his eyes.

But he managed to ask, "Are you sure about this? I mean, you do remember how pissed they were over that last time, right?"

There was no hesitation in the voice on the other end of the call.

"I do not care. This is urgent and I know of no other trackers like them. Do you?"

"No. No, I don't," Flair replied, "Not on this continent anyway.

"But, yeah...I'll try. Only you and I both know those women are going to drive a hard bargain this time around."

"I don't care," Brazier Abraxis said, "Whatever is necessary, I will do it. I only care that you find them and quickly before the trail turns cold."

It was like a lightbulb stuttering into light inside Flair's sleepy head. His eyes wide open then, he asked, "Is it starting then? What you thought might happen...has it begun?"

Braze was silent a moment, then replied, "I think so. I am not entirely sure, but they have taken the girl, Flair."

"Oh," he replied, a chill slipping along his skin, then his hackles rising as he thought of the battle to come, he said, "I'll find them, Braze. The Twins won't be able to hide from me for long."

"Good...call me when you do. I'm on the road right now."

Flair terminated the call then stood up. The breakfast bar was just beside him and he slammed a fist down hard.

Damned vampires, he thought, and on my day off, too.

He jumped over the futon bed lying in his living room, his pretty-much-everything-room, searching furiously for his little black book.

He knew it was as old fashioned as vinyl records, but that little book was the repository of all his conquests. It didn't much matter that Agate and Opal didn't figure among them. Not yet, anyway. The two women were inseparable and what he wouldn't give to be the meat in a Twin sandwich.

There, just a corner showing from underneath the futon, he saw the dog eared little book. Flair grabbed it and started thumbing through the pages, not finding an entry for the Twins.

No, that can't be right, he thought, then grinned as he remembered. He flipped back immediately to the page facing the back cover and there it was, in his own handwriting:

The Twins...never going to happen. Crazy hippy wolf chicks. But, it sure would be nice.

Just below that, in faded pencil, was a scribbled address with a beer bottle's ring stain running through it. The address was followed by a cellphone number and as Flair rushed out of his apartment, taking the stairs down three at a time, he was simultaneously tucking in his shirt tail and stabbing his thumbs down on that number.

The black sedan was parked out back and as he ran and jerked open the driver's door, a sleepy voice answered.

"Uhm--yeah? Whoizzit, whatsa?"

Flair did his best to sound bright and cheery.

"Hey Agate! Long time no see, right? This is Flair...you know the handsome dude with the big, black....car."

The first half of the pair did not answer right away, until, finally he heard, "Pfffft...blondie puppy? Ok...whatevuh...nitey night."

Flair nearly shouted as he said, "No! Wait. Don't hang up."

There was a pause, then she asked, "So what is it, little pound puppy?"

Ok, this isn't starting out so well.

"Uh...yeah. Look, the boss needs you guys. Like right away. Like now."

The woman on the other end of the phone call cleared her voice, then said, "Ok. Now I'm listening. Does that prick remember how it went down last time?"

Flair hesitated, not sure how to answer.

"I'm sure he does, Agate. No doubt. But look, this is urgent. Über urgent, you know?"

"Uh huh. Sure. Just like that. Well, pound puppy, I think you can go pee in the corner and then shake about it while I roll over for another hour or two of z's. Then, when me and Ope get back up, we might be in a better mood. For contemplatin' things, you know."

"No, no. You don't understand. He's on his way. Right now."

"What do you mean 'right now'?" she asked, startled.

Flair decided lying was the best policy, given the circumstances. He glanced down at the address written in his little book and took a chance.

"You and Opal still down there in the warehouses?"

"Ummm...and what if we were?"

Flair grinned. He could hear the nervousness in her voice.

"Well, I'm just calling as a courtesy call, Agate. He's already on his way."

"Oh. Oh, shit."

"Yes. Exactly," he replied then ended the call.

His thumbs raced for Braze's number. He did not have to scroll through the list though. The big wolf was at the top, just as he should be.

The line rang only half a ring, before the deep voice of Brazier Abraxis spoke.

"Yes? What do you have for me, Flair?"

"I've got 'em. The Twins are up and waiting for us."

Flair rattled off the address without waiting for the alpha wolf to respond.

"So, we'll meet up at their place?"

"No, Flair. I'll go alone. I need to make quick work of this.

"Instead, go to the city police barracks and wait for me there. This won't take long."

"Yessir, you got it."

Flair hung up, then chuckled as he thought of the two women waiting for Braze to arrive.

It's going to take longer than you think, boss. He had heard how angry Agate still was with Braze, but behind that and the surprise that the big wolf himself was coming to blow down their door, he had heard something else. Two things, in fact.

Self satisfaction. And, hunger.

Not if they can help it.

Flair keyed the engine on, slipped his sunglasses onto his face, and rolled for the police station where he knew he was going to have to wait a little while for the party to start.

That was okay, though. He was used to it. A whole other kind of party was going to get going without him and that was just fine. As he remembered them, the Twins were mighty fine chickas, but they had a mean streak a hundred miles long. Big bad wolf or not, Brazier Abraxis was about to have women troubles right up to his chinny chin chin.



There was a smaller door inset in the larger corrugate steel door. It was the kind of thing built for allowing entire trucks to enter the building and have their freight discharged directly to storage.

Hardly a place where one might expect to find two beautiful, if feral, women.

Braze did not doubt what Flair had told him, though. The young man was as trustworthy as the day is long. And, for that matter, he was a member of the alpha wolf's inner circle, what the urban wolves seemed helpless from forming. Lacking a larger, extended pack, they formed small knots of closely tied individuals while the whole of the race remained largely scattered throughout the urban landscape.

They were almost nothing like their forest brethren. Braze would have preferred otherwise, but if wolves were one thing, it was that they were fluid in their adaptability. Just as their wild cousins, only it was in the world of modern men that they had chosen for their realm.